The survey released by the CIP – Business Confederation of Portugal, in partnership with ISCTE's Marketing FutureCast Lab, which has a sample of 355 companies, of which the majority (47 percent) are from industry and energy, other services (22 percent), commerce (15 percent) and construction and real estate activities (5 percent).

Although expectations regarding the recovery of activity vary from sector to sector, the study highlights that 21 percent of the companies surveyed consider that “an activity similar to the period before the pandemic has already been achieved”.

"There are already more companies experiencing the resumption of activity and finally, after a year and a half, economic activity is starting to move and there are expectations that we can reach pre-pandemic levels", highlighted the CIP leader Óscar Gaspar.

The study also indicates that only 10 percent of companies believe that recovery will take place by the end of 2021, while 30 percent believe that recovery will only happen in 2022, 17 percent in 2023 and 6 percent after that year.

Óscar Gaspar highlighted, on the other hand, that the opinion of entrepreneurs regarding public support programmes worsened this month, with 82 percent of companies considering that they are falling short of what they need (against 79 percent in June).

As for the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), 60 percent of the inquired entrepreneurs believe that it will have no meaning for their company's activity, with 10 percent considering it to be significant and only 2 percent very significant.

"This is a huge concern", underlined Óscar Gaspar, adding that "what businessmen feel is that the PRR is not their concern."